


Veritas Aeterna

by RedOrchid



Series: Shadowhunters: The Ficlet Instruments [15]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Gen, seelies, shadowhunter lore, that i just made up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 02:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21468712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedOrchid/pseuds/RedOrchid
Summary: So exactlywhyis it that Seelies can't lie?
Series: Shadowhunters: The Ficlet Instruments [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1437823
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52
Collections: Shadowhunters: The Ficlet Instruments





	Veritas Aeterna

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [sh_ficletinstruments](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/sh_ficletinstruments) collection. 

> **Prompt:** In vino veritas

“What are you reading?”

Jace nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound, quickly closing the book in front of him. He turned and came face to face with an incredibly smug-looking Max, a newly applied stealth rune proudly on display on his arm.

“Nothing. Clave stuff.”

“Seriously, is it some kind of really weird porn?” Max asked. “You were deep into it, man. Didn’t even notice that I stubbed my toe and totally gave away my position.”

“Then you’d better keep practicing.” Jace smirked and stood from his chair, ruffling Max’s hair before unceremoniously shooing him out of the room.

Once Max was safely on the other side of the door, he sank back down and reopened his book. It had been nearly impossible to get hold of a volume on Seelies that held any merit, but he’d finally succeeded. He turned to the page he’d found earlier and stared at the engraving of an all-too familiar-looking fountain of wine next to the Queen’s throne.

The fountain of truth. And, as it turned out, of immortality.

—-

The idea had been born in Edom.

They had been walking through the red desert for what had felt like days, with Meliorn pulling one embarrassing truth after the other out of him, and Jace had grown increasingly frustrated, until something in him finally snapped.

“How do you _ live _ like this? He’d demanded.

To which Meliorn had simply smiled that slow, enigmatic smile of his and replied, “Eternally.”

At the time, Jace had been too focused on his own plight, and on finding Izzy and the others to think more of it, but now, with Clary _ gone_, and Alec _ married_, and everything else that changed irrevocably, the words had come back to haunt him. 

He read the text on the page again and double-checked his translation. It was a well-known fact among Shadowhunters that eating or drinking anything from the Queen’s table would have dire consequences, but exactly _ what _ those consequences were supposed to be had always been a bit of a mystery.

Until now.

Eternal life granted by the wine in the Seelie Queen’s fountain, with the cosmic twist of never again being able to lie. The Angels must have had a field day with that one.

Jace closed the book and leaned back with a sigh. Deciding what to do with this new found information would be a far trickier matter.


End file.
